Sideshow Blues

by Todd Snider

{intro/fill}

[ use hammered-on C from G ]

/ G C G CG /

My landlady treats me like I don't pay my rent

Gave my car to my mechanic, and I ain't seen it since

My phone is always ringing when I want to be alone

They try and sell me everything from Heaven to cologne

Everybody's got an offer I can't refuse

It's a circus out here mama, your baby's got the sideshow blues

/ G - / / / C - G - / D - C - G - - - /

It's all a big commercial; it's a video of a man

It's a plot to put an end to my attention span

They make up all these issues, I never understood

If I thought I could change things I'd run out to Hollywood

But it's hard to kick the door down wearing seven dollar shoes

It's a circus out here mama, your baby's got the sideshow blues

I've got them sideshow blues, I want to tame the lions

These center ring rich kids ain't even trying

From college to the big top, they take all the best positions

While I'm out in this tent with these freaks and musicians

I'm out here in this smoke-free bar with all y'all freaks and musicians

Moaning them sideshow blues

/ C - / G - / C - / D - / / D - G - - - /

I try to tell my girlfriend she's the only one that I've got

This chick I hardly knows keeps on telling her she's not

She got a loaded pistol, she waves it all the time

She says some times you gotta kill a boy to keep his ass in line

Well that's the way she sees it, she says she saw it on the news

It's a circus out here mama, your baby's got the sideshow blues

See people play satanic records, and you don't know when they'll freak

From quiet kid to maniac to movie of the week

We're killing over cocaine, dying over sex

We're bowing down and praying to who'll ever cuts the check

When I go to church on Sunday, I can't help sleep in the pews (that's what I do)

It's a circus out here mama, your baby's got the sideshow blues

It's a circus out here mama, your baby's got the sideshow blues

It's a circus out here mama, your baby's got the sideshow blues

It's a circus, people... step right up.